Radio listeners in Chilliwack and Abbotsford who normally tune into SONiC may have thought they'd bumped the dial Thursday morning.
On June 19, the station abruptly changed format, broadcasting as KISS Throwbacks, with Rick Campanelli as the morning host.
They will now be playing "all the hits of the '90s and 2000s," according to a SONiC Radio Instagram post. The station broadcasts on 107.5 FM in Chilliwack, 92.5 FM in Abbotsford, and 104.9 FM in Vancouver. The Instagram post suggests listeners start following the Kiss Throwback's accounts, including on the Seekr app.
For the past three years, the station has been playing alternative rock. They launched that format in June 2022, by playing a Rage Against the Machine song, Killing in the Name, on a 30-hour loop without explanation. The gimmick was picked up by media around North America, and came on the heels of the Rogers-owned station cutting ties with radio hosts, Kevin Lim, Sonia Sidhu and Tara Jean Stevens.
Campanelli is a former VJ from MuchMusic, and has also recently joined Breakfast Television as a reporter. Other on-air hosts on the station will be Jonny Staub, Bri Cook, Juliette Nunes and Greg Burns.
The station's ID is CKKS-FM, licensed to Chilliwack and serving Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. It's owned by Rogers Radio, a division of Rogers Sports & Media. The company also own CKSR-FM, better known as Star FM, which also broadcasts out of Chilliwack on 98.3 FM with a repeater in Hope.
